Ex-cons unsure of voting rights

Felons can re-register once they serve time

Oct. 6, 2012

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Does a felon have voting rights?: Chris Whitmire, a spokesman for the State Election Commission, says felons can register to vote just like anyone else once their sentence is complete.

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COLUMBIA — Larry Robinson of Greenville had never voted and said he thought he would never get the chance.

But four years ago, a friend told him that just because he had been convicted of a drug crime more than a decade before didn’t mean he had forever lost his right to vote.

Robinson, 37, had completed his sentence and wanted to vote in the presidential election in 2008. He re-registered and voted then for the first time.

“I felt like a part of something that was important,” he told GreenvilleOnline.com. “It means a lot to be able to vote.”

Each year in South Carolina, state prisons release about 12,000 felons who can vote again once they complete their probation or parole.

But many do not know it, despite the efforts of prison and probation staff, as well as some community leaders.

“It’s a huge, huge problem,” said Rep. Todd Rutherford, a Columbia Democrat, defense lawyer and former prosecutor. “It’s not just ignorance. It’s downright fear because they don’t want to break the law by going in to vote if they’re not supposed to.”

Former Rep. Fletcher Smith of Greenville, also a defense lawyer, agrees there is ignorance about the law.

“That is a problem in our community because a lot of people do not understand that once they’ve paid their debt to society, they have a right to vote,” he said.

Automatic restoration common in states

Most states automatically restore voting rights, though not all, according to a survey of states by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

In 38 states and the District of Columbia, most ex-felons automatically regain the right to vote, according to the conference.

In other states, felons must either wait for a certain amount of time after the completion of their sentence or apply for the restoration of those rights. In four states, governors decide whether to restore voting rights, a political controversy that can change as governors change.

Nationally, 5.3 million Americans were unable to vote in the 2008 election because of a felony connection, according to NCSL. That included 1.4 million African-American men, 676,000 women and 2.1 million ex-offenders who had completed their sentences, according to the conference.

In South Carolina, about 3,000 state felony convictions are reported to the State Election Commission each month, said Chris Whitmire, a spokesman. Another 100 federal convictions also are reported, he said.

He said some of those are for multiple convictions for the same person or for someone who was already removed from the voter rolls or was not registered to begin with.

For those reasons, he said, the state only removed about 3,600 voters due to convictions last year.

Each person in the state convicted of a felony receives a letter from the Election Commission, notifying them that their voting registration certificate is canceled and they are not able to vote “until you become qualified and register to vote again.”

The recipient of the letter is given 20 days to appeal the Election Commission’s decision. Whitmire said appeals are rare but do occur, mostly due to errors in records and sometimes because plea bargains reduced the offense to a misdemeanor.

Keeping track

Whitmire said the state maintains a database of voters and those who are convicted of a felony or election law offense are placed on inactive status. Once they are paroled, pardoned or complete their probation, or have completed their sentence, they can re-register to vote.

“The bottom line is the voter registration office has to be satisfied that the voter is qualified to vote,” he said. “Many times the voter registration office does not know they ever were a convicted felon. They are just submitting an application like the next person.”

And on that application, he said, the person must check a box that says they have not been convicted of a felony or election law offense, or if they have been, they have completed their sentence. Anyone falsely checking that box can be convicted of perjury, he said.

Sometimes the office may be aware of the conviction and they can ask for proof of completion of their sentence if they suspect it might not be finished, Whitmire said.

“That’s the exception,” he said.

County voter registration offices handle registrations, Whitmire said, and the state office takes care of removals.

Lynne West, who directs voter registration for Laurens County, said when she learned several years ago that felons in South Carolina have their voting rights restored automatically, she contacted a relative who had completed his sentence and let him know.

He had spent 30 years believing he was permanently banned from voting.

“He was over there to register in about five minutes,” she said.

Each year in the state, thousands of felons become eligible for voter re-registration, officials say.

Confusion not limited to former felons

Last year, 11,409 were released from prison, slightly below the 12,024 from the year before, said Clark Newsom, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.

He said inmates, before they leave, must sign a checklist of items of information, including details about how they can re-register to vote.

“It’s a pretty complete outline of what their rights are,” he said.

But it may be years before they are eligible after their release if they still must complete probation, officials said.

For whatever reason, many of those convicted do not understand they can vote again, Rutherford and Smith said.

Sometimes it is because of the ignorance, Rutherford said.

He recalled a case several years ago in which a client was convicted of a non-felony but received a letter anyway saying his voter registration had been canceled.

Rutherford said many public officials do not understand the law.

“You could probably call 10 elected officials and ask them the same question and I guarantee you 40 to 50 percent would not know the right answer,” he said.

Smith said election officials are not just ignorant of the law but reluctant to work to educate those who have been convicted.

“I think since a lot of these people have prior criminal records, a lot of politicians do not want to be associated with them, because it might have some negative influence on their particular election,” he said. “I never found it to be negative in my races but the fact remains that these folks do not have a constituency in the General Assembly in South Carolina.”

Some barriers remain for those who have paid their debt to society and want to vote again, according to the conference of state legislators.

Agencies do not always coordinate information accurately on convictions, according to the conference, the process of re-registering can seem daunting to ex-offenders and there is a general lack of information for felons about how they can vote again.

Twenty-eight states have taken steps in recent years to make it easier for felons to vote, according to the organization.

Seven have repealed lifetime disenfranchisement laws, two have given those on probation the right to vote, nine now require agencies to give information or assistance to ex-offenders about voting once they complete their sentence and 12 have simplified the process, from eliminating waiting periods to streamlining paperwork.

West said the interest is there if offenders know they can vote again. She said her office has received about 15 calls in this election cycle from those interested in the issue.

Smith said local officials can do more to educate their community.

“I do think the leadership in our communities have not made that a major focus during this campaign season,” he said. “You don’t have to tell people they have to vote for Democrat or Republican or Independent. But I do think they need to inform people they have a right to participate in the process.”